North Korea on Tuesday fired around 100 artillery shells toward the inter-Korean maritime buffer zone in a tit-for-tat action against South Korea and US live-fire drills staged near the border, further escalating tensions on the peninsula. Around 90 artillery shots were fired from the area of Kosong County in Kangwon Province toward buffer zones in the East Sea from 10:00 a.m. local time, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed, adding the artillery firing continued until this aftern

North Korea Dec. 6, 2022

This is the first installment of a three-part series shedding light on North Korea’s cryptocurrency thefts and their links to the hermit regime’s nuclear ambitions. -- Ed. Borders were closed and trade was cut off while international sanctions continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, further isolating North Korea, one of the world’s most impoverished nations. But its regime has discovered new ways of raking in funds to continuously pursue its missile ambitions and divert sa

North Korea Dec. 6, 2022

North Korea on Monday fired around 130 artillery shells into inter-Korean maritime buffer zones as South Korea and the US kicked off regular live-fire drills near the border. The artillery shells were fired from Jangsan Cape in South Hwanghae Province and Kumgang County in Kangwon Province from around 2:59 p.m. local time, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Monday afternoon. The artillery shots fell inside the buffer zone, but north of the Northern Limit Line, violating a 2018 dea

North Korea Dec. 5, 2022

South Korea’s Air Force said Thursday it had expanded its space operations unit to enhance interoperability between the South Korean and US space forces against air and missile threats from North Korea. The launch of the “Space Operations Squadron” aims to strengthen the South Korean Air Force’s “capabilities to conduct space operations in practice," it said. The squadron will surveil space objects and send alerts concerning space threats, it said in a statemen

Defense Dec. 1, 2022

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to make the country’s military strength “more absolute and irreversible” and push for nuclear buildup at an “exceptionally rapid speed” at a pseudo-event celebrating the successful launch of the new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile where he brought his second daughter Kim Ju-ae again. “It is the truth taught by history that only when we become the strongest, not the weak, in the present world where the stren

North Korea Nov. 27, 2022

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un brought his “beloved” second child, styled just like her mother this time, into the public eye for the second time in about a week through a photo published in state media on Sunday. Photos showing a very intimate father-daughter moment at a large-scale event celebrating the successful launch of the new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, suggest that Ju-ae has emerged as a very important figure to the North Korean leader, or possibly a cand

North Korea Nov. 27, 2022

WASHINGTON -- A yearslong impasse in bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea suggests the need for the Joe Biden administration to venture for unexplored ways in order to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiation table, a former deputy chief of US mission in Seoul said. “At this point, the ball really is in North Korea’s court. The US and South Korea have shown what they’re prepared to offer,” said Mark Tokola, vice president of the Korea Economic Institut

North Korea Nov. 21, 2022

The South Korean military on Friday conducted strike drills attacking a mock North Korean missile launcher with aerial laser-guided bombs, in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile toward the East Sea. The live-fire drills were staged at Pilsung Range in Kangwon Province in the afternoon, about six hours after the North Korean missile was launched to waters off Japan at 10:15 a.m., according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The drills aimed to “de

North Korea Nov. 18, 2022

South Korea and the United States on Friday launched a new working group tailored to step up their policy coordination and communication to strengthen the alliance’s counter-missile capability and posture in light of escalating North Korean missile threats. The first meeting of the Counter-Missile Working Group was held in Seoul around two weeks after the South Korean and US defense chiefs discussed ways to enhance the alliance’s deterrence and readiness posture at the 54th Security

North Korea Nov. 18, 2022

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday called for a strengthened defense posture and tough economic sanctions on North Korea after the country launched another intercontinental ballistic missile. “President Yoon instructed to strengthen the South Korea-US combined defense posture, actively implement the measures agreed between South Korea and the US to enhance the viability of US extended deterrence and reinforce security cooperation among South Korea, the US and Japan,” the

North Korea Nov. 18, 2022

North Korea on Friday fired another intercontinental ballistic missile in two weeks, which Japan said appeared to have fallen into waters within the neighboring country’s exclusive economic zone. North Korea fired the ICBM from Sunan District, Pyongyang, toward the East Sea at around 10:15 a.m. local, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The ICBM traveled about 1,000 kilometers, reaching a top speed of Mach 22 and an altitude of around 6,100 km, the JCS said in a

North Korea Nov. 18, 2022

North Korea on Thursday fired a ballistic missile off its east coast, after the country warned it would take “fierce” military action against US efforts to strengthen its extended deterrence posture against Pyongyang. A short-range ballistic missile was fired from an area around the coastal city of Wonsan in Kangwon Province toward the East Sea at around 10:48 a.m. local time, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The short-range ballistic missile traveled ab

Defense Nov. 17, 2022

WASHINGTON -- South Korea should concentrate on averting a second contingency on the Korean Peninsula in the event of China’s invasion of Taiwan, says Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow and director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. “South Korea should make it clear to China that if China were to attack Taiwan, it could not consider business as usual,” O’Hanlon said in an interview with The Korea Herald on Nov. 2 at the Brookings Institutio

Defense Nov. 16, 2022

WASHINGTON -- South Korea has to “take on some risk” to contribute to deterring Chinese aggression against Taiwan as a US ally by reinforcing its own deterrence capabilities and readiness posture vis-a-vis North Korea and resilience against China’s coercive economic statecraft, Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at Hudson Institute, said. “One way to answer that question is to ask what didn’t South Korea do before the invasion happened?” Cronin answe

Defense Nov. 16, 2022

WASHINGTON -- The US and South Korea should seek to optimize their combined defense posture and create room for diplomacy with North Korea, according to Frank Jannuzi, president of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and formerly US President Joe Biden’s longtime foreign policy aide in the Senate. Recalibrating strategy to enhance the alliance’s readiness is imperative to achieve the ultimate objective of maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula. “There’s some trut

Defense Nov. 15, 2022